Question

Topic: Website Critique

Website Targeting An Executive Audience

Posted by Anonymous on 3/3/2008 at 1:33 PM ET 250 Points
We recently redid our website and I would appreciate critiques of the following areas:

1.) Usability: Is it easy to navigate, does the layout make sense?

2.) Messaging: Is it clear what we do from our website? Is it clear how a company might benefit from our services?

3.) Call to Action: Do you feel there is a strong enough call to action to get senior executives to contact us?

Of course, if there is anything else you think needs to be addressed, let me have it.

Thank you so much for your time!

Dee

https://www.selling-up.com


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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 3/3/2008 at 5:41 PM Member
    Sorry, don't mean to rain on the parade, but I think the website could be better.

    The key question you need to answer is

    Why am I here?
    What am I supposed to do?

    The objective is "Don't make me think".

    The bottom section as to the purpose - "Align strategy, people, processes and technologies to achieve and sustain profitable, predictable, persistent sales revenue growth." is completely lost at the bottom of the page.

    For instance - How is "Customer Focus" a service? - it's more of an outcome. You need to think more deeply about how you provide Customer Focus - is it "Build Deep Customer Understanding", "Research Customer Behaviors", "Analyze customer needs", "Map Sales Processes",

    What's the story here?

    My recommendation is hire a web usability expert - it will be $ well spent.
  • Posted on 3/3/2008 at 5:53 PM Author
    Tim,

    Thanks for your comments. Not to worry about raining on the parade, I asked for honest assesments and you provided some good insights!

    Dee
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/4/2008 at 10:50 AM Accepted
    1.) Usability. Why not move the Services menu in line with horizontal menu (and before About Us)? It'll give you more space and less confusion. Don't forget a home page menu item as well.

    2.) Messaging. New World/New Solutions doesn't say anything. Nor does "building competitive advantage". Nor "Create a customer-driven business culture". Get clear on the benefits: Improve customer service quality. Improve sales efficiency. Find better employees.

    3.) Call to Action. You don't have a strong call to action ("Build" is passive). Contact Us To Improve Sales 35% is stronger.

    Also - allow people to click on your newsletter to sign up for it as well. And, a stronger reason for signing up for the newsletter - is it free, chock full of excellent tips that you can implement immediately?
  • Posted on 3/4/2008 at 5:56 PM Accepted
    Hi dsparg,
    Unfortunately, the site looks to me like a graphic designer created it without any thought to: 1) key messaging, 2) eye flow, and 3) generating a response.

    When the page opens, the single most important thing you could say to me MUST be where my eye is drawn. Here's how you tell if you've got the right headline: read it out loud -- is that the first thing you'd say to me if you were selling me face-to-face? Probably not.

    If you're going to use a photo, it should be your product "hero shot" (making your product the hero -- or where the eye is drawn on the page). If you're selling a service, put a graphic of your latest white paper there to draw the eye. There doesn't seem to be any relationship to the big photo and your messaging.

    Your single response element (as far as I can tell) is strangely floating in the right column. The right column is the correct place for your special offers -- but there isn't any copy telling me WHY I should subscribe, and then all the white space below the graphic looks strange.

    Here's how to re-create a home page that works:
    1. Make a list of all the elements that should be there in PRIORITY order, from most important to least. Then revise your layout to put the most important things at the top, and make them the most prominent.
    2. Talk to your best salespeople or business development people. Ask them what they would say to a new prospect face-to-face. Then incorporate that copy into your home page.
    3. Make a list of all the key things visitors will be looking for when they hit your home page. Create navigation buttons linking to those things -- in the terms that visitors will recognize. Your navigation buttons are very "corporate-speak."

    You might be interested in my white paper, "Web Site Rehab" at www.SMAresource.com.
  • Posted on 3/9/2008 at 4:28 PM Member
    I know you did not ask for this particular type of advice, but if no one can find your website then the usability does not matter since the traffic will always be low.

    The goal of a website is not to look beautiful, it is to ATTRACT prospects and CONVERT them to leads and customers. Here is a free marketing and SEO report about your website. You scored 18 / 100, so there is significant opportunity for improvement.

    If you click on the report link it gives you specific ways to improve your website. This report is from www.WebsiteGrader.com and you can run additional reports for free there.
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